This week, Johnson & Johnson etched its name in the history books of another big pharma company that has been fined over billions of dollars due to a drug manufacturer practices of improper marketing and failure to warn. Johnson & Johnson pled guilty to claims stemming from allegations that the giant pharmaceutical company knowingly marketed [...]

Because of the high failure rates of metal on metal hip devices, and the potential for toxic exposure, the United Kingdom is moving to ban all metal-on-metal hip replacements performed at National Health Service [NHS] hospitals. NHS is the publicly funded health care system in the U.K, the NHS seeks to stop these surgeries with [...]

On September 20, the Honorable David Katz presiding over the DePuy bellwether case, Ann McCracken v. DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc., et. al., Case No. 11 dp 20485, continued the trial 90 days from September 24, 2013 “in the interest of justice”. According to the Order, the Judge continued the trial so that the parties could complete [...]

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is no stranger to controversy. From being embroiled in massive litigation in DePuy ASR artificial hips, Pinnacle litigation, and in the transvaginal mesh litigation with its Ethicon Gynecare products to its multiple legal troubles and fines associated with the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal, some things do not change for J&J – they [...]

Recent medical disasters such as the DePuy ASR, DePuy Pinnacle, and transvaginal mesh cases have revealed that medical devices were approved for use without adequate clinical data based on a grandfathering type provision in the FDA called a 510(k) process, where a new device that is cleared as "substantially equivalent" as a previously approved device [...]

Big Pharma paid doctors more than $1 billion in 2012 to act in various spokesperson capacities, for travel and meals, as well as research and royalties, which is significantly more than reported in 2011. According to a new data reported in the Financial Times, that figure only includes the 12 leading drug makers who actually [...]

Consumers injured by defective devices face an armada of attorneys as they seek to hold accountable device makers such as J&J’s hip implants DePuy ASR, DePuy Pinnacle, J&J’s transvaginal mesh product Ethicon, and Merck’s FOSAMAX that has left countless post menopausal women with atypical femur fractures. Currently there are over 10,000 pending cases in the [...]

On May 16, 2013, in what many health advocates feel is a long overdue move, J&J’s DePuy Orthopedic unit announced it was stopping the manufacture of all metal replacement hips. In August 2010 the unit recalled the DePuy ASR in the face of mounting evidence of high failure rates but continued to sell the all [...]

Johnson and Johnson (J&J), already embroiled in massive litigation in DePuy ASR artificial hips, and in the trans vaginal mesh litigation from its Ethicon Gynecare products, faces another significant issue over its mounting legal troubles stemming from its antipsychotic drug Risperdal. The drug was approved in 1993 for use in adults and was also later [...]

Manufacturers, user facilities and importers of medical devices are mandated to submit certain adverse events to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration [FDA]. Medical device reporting requires that manufacturers report to the FDA when they learn that one of their devices may have contributed to a death or serious injury. Consumers and health professionals can [...]